lately on the lottie ... and elsewhere

Lavender are fantastic plants; tough, hardy, reliable and great for attracting bees and butterflies, not to mention the pretty flowers, beautiful fragrance and culinary uses.
Every garden or allotment should have one ...or more!
Hidcote is my favourite amongst the lavenders for its neat, bushy habit, so when I saw them at the local garden centre for a very good price, I snapped up two and have planted them in pots on the lottie.

  I nipped down to the allotment earlier, dodging the thunderstorms, for some general tidying up.
I cut back and cleared the strawberry bed, weeded other areas and gathered more plums, which against all the odds has turned into a bumper crop of the most delicious fruit -
sweet, juicy with flesh like honey so, so much better than the imported peaches etc which often have all the taste and allure of damp cotton wool.

I also spied amongst a jungle of leaves some baby butternut squash - variety Hunter grown from seed back in the spring.

And in our garden, some late summer colour, looking fresh and revived after the morning rain.

Meanwhile, last week, hot on the heels of the Tour de France, our little market town was host to another cycle race,  the Circuit of the Fens.
The 134 mile race is part of the British Cycling Grand Prix series and featured about 140 leading riders.
The weather was very hot as the cyclists battled it out along the flat, sunbaked Fen roads before completing several laps of the town centre.
All very exciting!